1. Use Facebook. If you don’t have a business page for your pawnshop, get one.  Use incentives in the store to generate “followers” on your page (i.e. give a free DVD for a follow).  Post everything you can in the Facebook Marketplace.  Use the “boost” feature on Facebook to promote high dollar items or store events/sales.  The ability of Facebook to profile its users and generate qualified customers to you is priceless, literally.

2. Encourage layaway sales. Often times, sales in pawnshops are impulse purchases.  In order to take advantage, employees must offer both a sales price and a “minimum down” to put it into layaway.  Managers need to monitor conversations between employees and sales customers to ensure that layaway information is being communicated.  The best thing about layaways is that it usually takes multiple visits from a customer for a layaway to be paid off – more opportunities to interact with the customer. 

3. All jewelry inventory priced over $500 gets displayed uniquely. The term is called “eye fatigue”, and it is common for jewelry shoppers. After less than 30 seconds of shopping, jewelry begins to blur together.  Most jewelry trays hold anywhere from 16 to 64 rings and chains/bracelets can be anywhere from 6 to 25.  How are you going to make your more expensive jewelry distinctive?  Create a separate display for your higher priced items and a clear, readable price tag.  With those new LED lights, it will sell much faster

4. LED lighting in jewelry showcases. For most pawn shops, jewelry is the largest component of a loan balance and your inventory.  Why not spend just a couple more dollars and boost your biggest asset? It will enhance diamond brilliance and brighten all displays – which more than pays for the few extra bucks needed for the LED lights.  A side note, the LED lights last longer as well.

5. Post your pulls. The most common complaint I hear from pawn shop owners, large and small, is aging inventory.  The behavior they all share is lack of online sales opportunities.  These days, every person has a cell phone.  When you pull an item (pawn or layaway pull), take a picture of it and post it online the same day.  If your software has an e-commerce solution, use it – you’re paying for it so take advantage of it.  Craiglist, Facebook, Offer Up, eBay, etc…